TN MPs meet Rahul on Lanka issue, pitch for tough stand

Updated: Monday, March 4, 2013, 23:07 [IST]

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New Delhi, Mar 4: Congress MPs from Tamil Nadu on Monday told Rahul Gandhi that India should take a tough stand against Sri Lanka at the upcoming UN meet on Tamils issue as it was crucial for the party's future in the state.

Party sources said that the MPs including Union Ministers P Chidamabaram, G K Vasan and Jayanthi Natarajan and PCC Chief B S Gnanadesikan wanted India to support the resolution at the UN Human Rights Commission on the Sri Lankan Tamil's issue and found the party Vice-President "very sympathetic" to the cause of Tamils.

Though the meeting was customary affair following the start of the budget session of Parliament, MPs utilised the opportunity to impress upon the leadership that the Sri Lankan Tamils issue needed to be tackled strongly. They also raised the issue of fishermen from Tamil Nadu getting killed by Sri Lankan Navy as also the general political situation in the state. The MPs said that Gandhi was told of the problems faced by Sri Lankan Tamils and the need for a political reconciliation and implementation of the 13th Amendment.

The meeting came in the wake of Dravidian parties, DMK and AIADMK, making the Tamil problem a major issue in state politics and putting pressure on the Centre to take a tough stand in the UN Human Rights Commission. India has already said that there should be accountability for such issues but has remained evasive on the position it will take at the UN on a resolution against that country.

The DMK, a key UPA constituent, had said in the Rajya Sabha last week that it has lost faith in the government on the issue and its members had staged a walkout along with those from AIADMK and Left, dissatisfied with External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid's reply to the debate on the plight of Tamils in Sri Lanka.

The Congress has 12 MPs in the state.

Delhi MPs meet Congress vice-president

Meanwhile, the Delhi MPs briefed Gandhi about the politics the national capital and discussed the reasons behind the party's poor show in the municipal elections last year, despite it winning all the seven Lok Sabha seats in the last parliamentary polls.

The sources said Gandhi would continue his interactions with leaders of other states in the coming days.